The Adventures of Clan Verity
by Aldraia Dragonsong
Summary: Clan Verity seeks to unravel the intertwined mysteries of Clan Void, the Order of the Sacred Secret, and the legend of the White Priestess. This has almost no connection to FFTA besides sharing the same setting, so there should be few to no spoilers.
1. Chapter One

(Greetings! This is your author, Rya. For those of you who read _The Other Side_, sorry for the long hiatus. Hopefully I will get back to that soon. In the meantime, please read this story and let me know what you think!)

Chapter One: The Founding of Clan Verity

_Our story begins with a group of six. Chance had brought them together, and friendship had kept them together. In a moment of boredom, they were bonded by something more..._

_And thus begins our story._

_Before we begin, however, it would be best to know the characters of our story:_

Keitoren the Bangaa: Talkative and honest. He thinks in a straightforward manner, and does not understand trickery. Somewhat rash and hot-tempered, he often acts without much forethought. Not much of a leader, but fortunately aware of it, he tends to leave decisions to the others. The oldest of the group. Called "Kei" for short.

Lamoru the Nu Mou: Just the opposite of Keitoren, he prefers to listen rather than speak. He is wise, but rarely expresses that wisdom. Always calm, he rarely acts without thinking. Like Keitoren, he usually abides by the others' decisions. The second-oldest. Kei calls him "Moru", but the others do not shorten his name.

Azina the Viera: Intelligent and curious, Azina is very skilled at figuring things out. She also asks many questions. She and Azila are the ones who make most of the decisions. The twins are the same age as Lamoru.

Azila the Viera: Azina's twin sister. As intelligent and as curious as Azina, Azila is very observant. She notices things none of the others do (except perhaps Lamoru). The twins are collectively called "Azi" for short.

Varei the Moogle: Clever and extremely suspicious. She trusts no one but the other five, and trusts only Yuhina completely. She likes to think she is independent, but relies on the others in ways she does not fully realize. The second-youngest of the group.

Yuhina the Human: Innocent and kind, Yuhina has no comprehension of evil. She believes in the basic goodness of all people. The youngest of the group. Varei calls her "Yuna", Kei calls her "Yuhi", and the twins do not shorten her name.

_It all started one placid day in Cyril…_

"I'm bored, kupo," Varei complained.

"Yess," Kei agreed. "Let'ss DO ssomething."

"What do you suggest?" Azina asked.

"You two are the oness with the ideass," Kei replied.

Azila sighed.

"Well," said Yuhina, "we could play a board game."

"Those are called _board_ games for a reason," said Varei.

"Yes, because they are played on boards," agreed Azina.

Azila chuckled.

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

Later, no one could remember who had first suggested it.

"Let's start a clan."

The plan was quickly agreed to.

But what to call it?

"Bah," said Kei, "it doessn't matter."

"What about Circle?" asked Azina.

"Tch. That's completely not kupo," said Varei.

…_A few minutes later…_

"We could call it Verity," Azila suggested.

"Verity?" asked a puzzled Varei.

"It means Truth," said Azina. "I like it."

Yuhina clapped her hands.

"I like it too!" she cried.

Lamoru nodded.

"Whatever!" said Kei, thoroughly annoyed with the whole procedure.

Varei shrugged.

"I guess it's okay, kupo," she said. "Since Yuna likes it."

"Verity it is," the twins said together. "Now we have to have some kind of ceremony, to seal the clanbond."

"Why?" Kei asked impatiently.

"For fun?" Yuhina suggested.

"To make our promises clear," added Varei. "So we all know what we are getting into, kupo."

Kei sighed, but made no further protest.

"Everyone, stand in a circle," said Azila.

"Put your right hands in the center," added Azina.

Azina and Azila glanced at each other sideways. They had thought about the ceremony as well as the clan name, and they knew what to do.

"We have gathered here," they said together, "to witness and take part in the birth of a new clan. We shall be bonded forever by the name of Clan Verity. Let us seal now that bond.

We shall stand for truth, as our name tells.

We will stand for justice.

We will stand by each other, and any members of the clan who come after us. Through good times and bad, through all the trials that may come, we will come to the aid of our clanmates.

Do you so swear?"

"Yess," said Kei.

"I do," said Yuhina, eyes sparkling with excitement.

Lamoru nodded.

Varei paused a while, before finally saying,

"I do."

"And we, Azi, so swear," said the twins. "The bond is sealed, the clan is born. May it never die!"

They did not feel any different, physically. But they all knew that something had changed.

They were clanmates now.

And so our story begins...


	2. Chapter Two

(Greetings. This is your author, Rya, returning with another chapter!

Due to next week being my college move-in and the week after that the start of classes, updates will be sporadic if at all for a while. Sorry about that.

It occurred to me that you might want to know the classes of our heroes, so here they are, Clan Verity's starting classes:

Kei: Warrior

Lamoru: White Mage

Azina: Fencer

Azila: Archer

Varei: Black Mage

Yuhina: Clerk (explanation in the story)

There you have it. Now, on to the story!)

Chapter Two: Starting Out

"So, what do we do now?" asked Azina.

"We need a base," said Azila.

"Anyone know a good place?" Azina asked.

They were all quiet for a moment, thinking.

"The Chocobo's Kweh," Azila said suddenly.

"That would be great," said Azina. "Think the pubkeeper would let us?"

"If we are not too rowdy, I think he would."

"Let'ss go, then," said Kei.

The pubkeeper did indeed agree to let them use the Chocobo's Kweh as their base.

That settled, the newly formed Clan Verity began setting up a base of operations.

Then they had a clan meeting to discuss what to do next.

Varei started by bringing up a problem.

"We swore to protect each other," she said. "That's kupo and all, but Yuna can't fight. What will we do about that, kupo?"

Everyone else paused, surprised. None of them had thought of that.

"I'd be dangerous to have along, wouldn't I?" said Yuhina. "You'd have to protect me, and I wouldn't be much help.

So I think I should just stay behind. I can stay here in the base, gathering information and keeping things together here, while you go out on missions and stuff."

The six friends traded glances. None of them wanted to say it.

It was Kei who finally did, unable to take the silence.

"She hass a point," he said. "It would be eassier to complete missionss if we didn't have to worry about her."

"But-" Azi began in unison.

"None of us like it," said Varei. "But it makes sense, kupo."

Lamoru nodded.

The twins sighed.

"All right," said Azina. "I suppose that's what we'll do."

"I suppose it is," said Azila.

And so it was decided that Yuhina would stay behind at the base while the rest of the clan went out on missions. Varei worried that something would happen to her while she was alone, but Yuhina pointed out that she would be safer in Cyril than with them, if they were doing something dangerous.

"And besides," she said, "I won't be alone. There's always the pubkeeper."

Being Yuhina, she had already befriended the pubkeeper, who thought she was a sweet girl.

"Help!" said a voice from the front of the pub.

The six of them spun about and rushed to the voice.

"What is it? What's happened?" Azina asked.

"There's a fire, and it's spreading!" said the moogle who had called. "Someone help, kupo!"

"First mission!" cried Yuhina. "Go, Clan Verity, quickly!"

They went.

Time passed. Clan Verity went out on missions, and Yuhina remained behind. But she did not simply sit about idly, living off the others' work. Oh, no; Yuhina was the clan's bookkeeper. She recorded every mission they completed. She was the one who found missions for them to go on. She talked with the pubkeeper, gathering rumors. She made friends with the denizens of Cyril.

And Clan Verity's reputation grew.

So things went for a time, and life was good for the young clan.

But then Yuhina began to hear some interesting rumors...

"We're baaack!"

"Welcome back!" cried Yuhina, just as she always did.

"We met a new clan thiss time," said Kei.

"Oh? Tell me!" Yuhina said eagerly.

"They're called Clan Void," said Azila. "Not sure why. They're mostly couriers, carrying letters and packages. They were going the same way we were, so we went together for a time. They're decent folks."

Yuhina smiled.

"I'm so glad you met someone nice," she said.

"So what happened while we were gone?" asked Azina.

"I heard an interesting story," said Yuhina.

"Oh, really? Tell us," said Azina.

"There was an old nu mou, a white mage, passing through," Yuhina began. "He told me the story.

Long ago, there was a priestess. She always wore white and was skilled in white magic, so people called her the White Priestess. She was kind and gracious, always helping others. She preached kindness, peace, equality for all races, and helping others before oneself.

There was also a priest. He was skilled in black magic and always dressed in black, so people called him the Black Priest. I do not understand why they called him a priest, for his behavior was most unpriestly. He did evil deeds."

"Like what?" asked Azina.

"I asked the white mage the same question," Yuhina said. "He just shook his head and said that I was better off not knowing such things.

The point is, the Black Priest did evil deeds and encouraged his followers to do the same. Just as he was preparing for something still more terrible, the White Priestess appeared before him.

'I can no longer permit you to go on as you have,' she said. 'Your days of evil deeds are over.'

The Black Priest laughed.

'What can you do against me?' he asked. 'You have only your white magic, while I have the might of black magic!'

No one is certain what happened next. But the white mage told me that he believed that there was a great flash of light. And when the light had faded and those who had come with the White Priestess could see again, they found that both the Priest and the Priestess had vanished."

"What a crazy story," said Varei. "What's the point of it, kupo?"

"Perhaps it is simply to entertain," Azila suggested.

"It'ss interesting," said Kei.

"I wonder what happened to the White Priestess and the Black Priest," Azina mused.

"Tch. Does it matter, kupo?" asked Varei.

"Well, no," Azila answered.

"But it's fun to wonder," Azina added.

"Wonder all you like," said Varei. "Just don't let it distract you from what matters. Remember that it's only a story, kupo."

At the time, none of them knew just how wrong Varei was.


	3. Chapter Three

((Welcome back to _The Adventures of Clan Verity_. I just wanted to say one thing, about a device I will begin using in this chapter: giving names to those who were unnamed in the game, like the pubkeeper.

I was not sure I wanted to do this at first; I tend to dislike it when people do that in their fanfiction. But I realized that it would make more sense for Yuhina to know the names of such people, and besides, it breaks up the monotony of always saying "the pubkeeper". So I guess what I am saying is, sorry for doing this, but it seemed most logical and best in terms of the story. Please enjoy my tale.)

Chapter Three: The White Mage With Amnesia

Time passed. Clan Verity's reputation grew, and its members got better at their jobs and switched to new ones.

"What's up?" Yuhina asked the pubkeeper, leaning on the counter.

"I heard some rumors recently about that legend of the White Priestess."

"Really?" Yuhina was interested. "Tell me more."

"There's two. The first one is that there was one other person with the Priestess when she vanished."

"Who were they, and did they vanish too?"

"According to the rumor, her acolyte, and no, they did not. The second rumor says that the acolyte found a number of sigils on the ground where the Priest and the Priestess had been."

"What did the acolyte do with them?"

"That, I don't know. The rumor doesn't even say whether the acolyte was male or female, or what race they were. Kind of makes sense -the Priestess was about equality for all, so to her and her followers it wouldn't matter. But it doesn't even say how many sigils there were."

"Well, thanks for the information. Any new missions?"

"A few. Have a look."

Yuhina looked over the missions.

"Hm. We'll take this one," she said, handing over the fee.

"Thanks. Good luck!"

"Thank you!" Yuhina called over her shoulder, already heading back to the part of the pub the clan used as their base.

"All right, Clan Verity, here's your new mission," said Yuhina, putting the paper with the mission information on the table. "It's a delivery, nothing fancy, except that they're worried that someone might try to steal the stuff."

"Does it say what we're delivering?" asked Azina.

"Materials for an alchemical experiment," Yuhina answered.

"Who'd want to ssteal that?" Kei muttered.

"Thieves will steal anything, kupo," Varei replied.

"How long will the mission take?" asked Azina.

"Um. It's to Cadoan, so... two days there and two days back, I think," said Yuhina.

"Let's go," said Azila. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we return." She picked up the mission description.

The five fighting members of Clan Verity took their packs and left on their mission.

It was the next morning that it happened.

"Hey, Yuhina," said the pubkeeper. "Going out?"

"Yes," said Yuhina, "If it's a nice day I don't want to spend it all inside."

Yuhina opened the door of the pub.

She blinked in surprise.

Yuhina turned to the pubkeeper.

"Could you help me?" she asked him. "There's someone collapsed on the doorstep, and I don't think I can carry him in myself."

"Do you know him?" the pubkeeper asked later.

"No," said Yuhina. "But from his clothes and the staff he was holding, he's a white mage. I wonder what happened?"

The first thing he realized was that he was lying in a bed and had no idea how he had gotten there.

The second thing was that there was a blonde girl with her hair in two ponytails looking at him with worry in her blue eyes.

"So you're finally awake," she said, sounding relieved. "You've been asleep for an entire day."

"Where... am I?" he asked, sitting up.

"You're in Clan Verity's base," she answered.

"How did I get here?"

"I found you collapsed on the doorstep," the girl explained. "What happened?"

He was silent for a while, thinking.

"I don't remember," he said finally.

"My name is Yuhina," the girl said. "What's your name?"

"Seyreon." That, he could remember.

"Well," said Yuhina, "it's nice to meet you, Seyreon. How do you feel?"

What he wanted to say was "I'm fine." But just then pain he hadn't been aware of before flared up. Suddenly he hurt all over.

What he actually said was "Nnngh!", wincing.

"Maybe you can do something with this?" Yuhina suggested, handing him a staff.

He looked at it. It was long, thin, and smooth, made of some white material he did not recognize. At the top was a round green crystal of some sort.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You don't recognize it? It's the staff you were holding when I found you."

"I... I can't remember anything but my name," he confessed.

Yuhina blinked.

"Oh," she said.

Holding the staff gave Seyreon an odd feeling. Like he knew something that he had not known before picking up the staff. But that was nonsense. People did not learn things just by holding objects.

Perhaps it was a symptom that something was wrong. He got the feeling that Yuhina was not a doctor, but perhaps she would know something.

"How odd," he said. "It's like... like I know something that I didn't before. Or like the staff is trying to _tell_ me something."

"I was right!" Yuhina exclaimed. "The staff _does_ do something!"

"You mean this is NORMAL?"

Yuhina nodded happily.

That made no sense. Seyreon had no specific memories, but he did have some general idea of how the world worked. People learning things simply from holding objects was definitely not possible, as he understood it.

And yet, it felt as though he had just done that.

He decided to ignore the contradictions for the moment and assume that Yuhina was correct.

Seyreon closed his eyes. What was the staff trying to say?

It whispered to him of healing.

Seyreon opened his eyes and stood. The staff was almost as tall as he was; the stone was at his eye level.

Suddenly he knew. He knew exactly what to do.

"High Healing," he whispered.

Seyreon made some effort of will which he did not fully understand, but knew instinctively how to do. It was similar to the way he knew how to move his arm, yet could not have explained just how he did it.

The stone atop the staff began to glow. Green light spilled out from it and circled him, twin beams of light spiraling from the floor to up past his head and then joining into a ball of green light just above his head. Small sparkles of white light filled the air around him.

The light drew into Seyreon and faded away.

He abruptly felt much, much better.

"Wow," he said. "This is pretty awesome."

But something was bothering him. That had definitely been magic of some kind. And magic was another thing that his understanding of the world was telling him was impossible.

Seyreon was starting to get the feeling that something else was wrong with him besides amnesia.

Yuhina grinned.

"So it worked?"

"Well, I feel fine now."

"Glad to hear it," said a man's voice. "Now, you mind explaining how you wound up on my doorstep?"

Seyreon turned to see the owner of the voice. He seemed oddly dressed, and now that Seyreon thought about it, so did Yuhina.

Based on his experience with the staff, Seyreon figured it was best not to mention it.

"Seyreon's lost his memory," Yuhina explained. "Everything but his name."

"That so?" the man asked.

"Yes," Seyreon replied. "If you'll forgive me for asking, who are you?"

"This is Domar, the keeper of the Chocobo's Kweh," Yuhina explained. "That's where we are now."

"I thought you said we were in Clan Verity's base," said Seyreon, thinking, _Whatever that means._

"The base is in the pub, of course," said Yuhina.

"Oh. Of course."

"Well, you need anything, Yuhina, you let me know, all right?" said Domar. "I need to get back to work."

"See you later, Domar," said Yuhina, then turned to Seyreon.

"You must be hungry," she said. "Come on, let's get you something to eat."

It occurred to Seyreon that this might be a good time to ask some questions.

"Say, Yuhina," said Seyreon as he followed her, "I've been meaning to ask you... what exactly is Clan Verity?"


	4. Chapter Four

((Well, here we are with another chapter. Sorry that it took so long.

Thanks go to my one reviewer, ThatGuyWhoFliesThatPlane. Thank you for your comment.

Someone please review? It encourages me to keep writing.))

Chapter Four: Chores To Do

Over lunch, Yuhina explained a number of things to Seyreon, most of them basic information that she would likely have been amazed that Seyreon did not know, had he not had the convenient excuse of near-total amnesia.

Nearly everything Yuhina told him was at odds with what Seyreon would have believed had he not had someone to tell him these things, although there was one thing that sounded familiar.

"Wait, you say this place is called Ivalice?" he asked. Something about that word struck a faint echo of memory inside him, but when he tried to figure it out, it slipped away.

"You really have it bad, don't you?" Yuhina said. "Ivalice is the name of this country. We're in the town of Cyril at the moment, the humans' town."

Seyreon decided he did not want to understand why she called it "the humans' town" just yet, though he should probably ask soon.

"It's just, when you said 'Ivalice', it sounded a little familiar," he said.

Yuhina perked up.

"That sounds good," she said. "Maybe you're getting your memory back a little!"

Seyreon shrugged.

"When I think about it, it's gone," he said. "I think I'm a long way away from remembering much of anything."

She also told him something about jobs, the clans, and about her clan, Clan Verity, in particular.

"So if everyone has a job, then what's yours?" Seyreon asked.

"Bookkeeper," said Yuhina. "I keep the records for Clan Verity: what missions we've done, which ones we're doing now, what kind of stuff we have, that sort of thing. I can't fight, really; I'm not good at it and I'm too young. So I stay behind and take care of things here. Azi would probably be better at it, but I can't do what they do."

"Azi?" Two things were confusing Seyreon: the term 'Azi', which he did not recognize, and its use as a plural despite sounding like someone's name.

"Ah, that's right, I haven't told you about us yet. Azi are the viera twins Azina and Azila. Azina's an elementalist and Azila's a sniper. Then you have Kei, that's the bangaa Keitoren, a dragoon; also Lamoru, a nu mou sage, and Varei, a moogle time mage. We don't really have a leader; we just sort of work things out together."

Seyreon didn't know what a viera was, any more than he knew what a bangaa, a nu mou, or a moogle was, but he didn't want to mention that just yet. He would have to soon, though, or he might accidentally insult someone.

"And what's my job?" he asked instead.

"You mean you don't know?" Yuhina sounded surprised. "Well, you're dressed like a white mage, and you can use healing magic. That's something white mages do. So I'd say that's what you are."

Dressed like a white mage...? Seyreon, for the first time, looked at what he was wearing, a white robe with red designs on it. It looked odd to him, in the same way Yuhina's and the pubkeeper's clothes had looked odd.

"A white mage," Seyreon repeated. He rather liked the idea, though some part of him kept insisting that there was no such thing as magic. Since that was the part which thought it was impossible to learn things from holding staffs, he was inclined to ignore it. Problem was, that was also the part of him which said his name was Seyreon, and which thought that "Ivalice" sounded familiar.

Seyreon put all these thoughts out of his mind for the moment. He would think on it when he had more information.

"We're not a big clan," Yuhina said, "but we work well together and we look out for each other. That's what we're about, really, taking care of each other. And truth and justice and honor and all that stuff you hear about in heroic legends, but that's kind of secondary, to be honest."

"Sounds nice," Seyreon said.

"It is," Yuhina said with a dreamy smile. Yet it looked to Seyreon as though there was sadness in that smile.

Seyreon looked at his staff. It still puzzled him. How had he come to be lying on the doorstep of the Chocobo's Kweh, holding the staff? Try as he might, he could not remember at all.

"I wonder what staff that is," Yuhina mused. "It's not like any I've seen before."

"Is there someone who might know?" Seyreon asked. He was curious too.

"Oh! We could ask the woman who runs the equipment shop; she might know."

Yuhina quickly got up and started cleaning up lunch. Seyreon did his best to help, but he was not very effective. Still, after not too long they were done, and Yuhina led Seyreon out to the equipment shop.

"I've never seen anything like this," said the shopkeeper when they showed it to her.

"You haven't?" Yuhina asked, surprised.

"Well, it looks a little like a Cure Staff, but the crystal is the wrong shape," the shopkeeper replied. "And I can't explain it, but it _feels_ different. You know what I mean?"

"Sort of," Yuhina said.

"It's the Heal Staff," Seyreon said suddenly.

Both of the others turned to look at him, surprise on their faces.

"I thought you didn't know what it was," said Yuhina.

"I didn't," Seyreon said. "I don't. But you said it looked sort of like a Cure Staff, and 'heal' is sort of like 'cure', right?"

"Sort of," the shopkeeper agreed.

"Well, I can't explain it," Seyreon said, starting to feel embarrassed, "but I have this feeling that it's called the Heal Staff."

Yuhina shrugged.

"Works for me," she said cheerily. "Let's go back home, I've some chores to do. See you later, Annella!"

"Come back anytime!" Annella called as they left.

When they reached the pub, Seyreon knew that it was time. He had to ask now, before something happened.

He waited until they got to the base before he finally had the courage to ask.

"Uh, Yuhina?"

"What is it?" Yuhina asked, turning to look at Seyreon.

"What's a viera? And those other things you mentioned, a moogle, a nu mou, and a bangaa?"

Yuhina could not help it. She laughed.

"What's so funny?" Seyreon asked, puzzled.

"I'm sorry," Yuhina said, trying to contain her laughter. "I shouldn't laugh, really I shouldn't. It's just, you ask the kinds of questions small children ask their parents when they encounter these things for the first time. And," she started laughing again, "and when you ask me these questions, it makes me feel like -like I'm your mother or something!"

Seyreon chuckled as Yuhina led him to a part of the base he had never been to before.

"Where are we, and why?" he asked when he noticed this.

"We're in the storage area," Yuhina explained. "I want to sort all the stuff we have, see if I can find anything interesting that we'd forgotten about."

"Can I help?" Seyreon asked, wanting to do something for Yuhina in return for what she'd done for him.

"That would be great!" said Yuhina excitedly. "You probably don't know much about equipment, seeing as you have amnesia, but hey, I don't know all that much myself, seeing as I can't fight."

"So how will we know if we find something interesting?" Seyreon asked.

"Well, today we'll just sort it by general type," Yuhina explained. "You know, swords over here, spears over there, that sort of thing. Then tomorrow I'll try to find a book or something to help me figure out the rest."

"Think you might have one among all this stuff?" Seyreon wondered.

Yuhina spun around to look at Seyreon.

"That's brilliant!" she said. "I have a pretty good idea where it would be, too. Thanks, Seyreon!"

Seyreon smiled.

"You're welcome."

They walked a short ways further, then Yuhina stopped and opened a door.

"Weapons first," she said. "We'll do the other stuff after this."

Seyreon blinked.

Weapons lay in random piles about the room. It was not a very large room, but neither was it tiny. Although it was not full, there were still a great many weapons, considering that Yuhina had told him they only needed to supply five people with them.

"This seems a bit... excessive," he said, once he had gotten over his amazement.

"I know," Yuhina agreed. "We keep getting weapons as rewards for missions. The stuff adds up pretty quickly. All right, first we want to put all the unsorted weapons in one place... Help me put them on either side of the door."

By the time they were done, they had two long piles leading from each side of the door to the corners on that side of the room. The piles took up about a quarter of the room, but they were higher than the original piles had been.

"Excellent!" said Yuhina. "All right, swords in that corner, spears in the other corner. Rods and staffs in two piles in the middle, and maces in between the swords and the spears. Rapiers over there, knuckles opposite them." She paused a moment, trying to think if she had forgotten any weapon types. "Oh yes, knives here, instruments there. Umm... that's all I can think of off the top of my head; if you find anything and don't know where it goes, talk to me. There are all kinds of swords, but I don't know enough to tell the difference. I'll sort them out another time, maybe after Kei gets back. He should know the difference. Oh right, I almost forgot bows! Put them over there. Once we get most of the stuff sorted out, we can put some things in the corners by the door, but this should do for now. Any questions?"

"How will I know a staff from a rod?" Seyreon asked.

"If you pick it up and it feels like you're learning something, it's a staff," Yuhina said. "If you don't, it's probably a rod. White mages can use staffs but not rods; rods are for black mages."

"Oh."

"That's why you're helpful," Yuhina said. "Without you, I don't know how I'd tell the difference."

Seyreon was glad that he would actually be helpful, rather than just doing something that looked kind of like help but really just kept him from being too much of a hindrance. He didn't know how, but he knew that kind of thing happened sometimes.

"You know," Seyreon said as they began, "you never did answer my question. What _are_ viera and moogles and all that?"

Yuhina laughed and explained the five races as they sorted the weapons.

There were a few mishaps -piles falling over, the occasional incorrectly sorted item, that sort of thing- but overall, the sorting went pretty well.

Yuhina finished her explanation long before they finished sorting, and they filled the rest of the time with casual conversation. They could not talk about much, seeing as Seyreon had amnesia, but they still managed some friendly banter, and that made the time pass quicker.

Several hours later, the weapons had been sorted.

"Phew!" Yuhina said. "That's done. Let's take a break before we start on the next room."

"You mean there's more?" Seyreon asked. He was certain that Clan Verity had enough weaponry for a small army in that one room.

"No more weapons," Yuhina said, beginning to walk back down the hall. "But there's other kinds of stuff -armor, shields, helms, and random other stuff. We don't need to sort the shields, there aren't many of those, but the other things could use sorting."

"This will take quite a while," said Seyreon, walking beside her.

"I'm glad you're here to help, otherwise I'd still be sorting!"

"Well, I'm glad you're here, otherwise I'd still be trying to figure out what was going on!"

Yuhina giggled.

The two of them had dinner, and when it was over, Yuhina sighed.

"I don't really want to sort more," she said. "But if I'm going to be done in time, I ought to."

Suddenly, Seyreon had a thought. The moment he thought of it, he was amazed it had not occurred to him sooner.

"Um, Yuhina?"

"Yes?"

"If there are six members of Clan Verity... then why are you the only one here?"

"Oh, the others are on a mission," Yuhina explained.

Yuhina had told Seyreon about missions while she was explaining clans.

"When will they be back?" he asked.

"Umm... they went to Cadoan, and they left the day before I found you. So that's a day, then today is two days, so they'll be back in two more. The day after tomorrow, probably in the evening."

As Yuhina said this, Seyreon thought that she looked sad for a moment. Before he could ask why, though, her face cleared and she hopped up.

"I think I'll go look for that book," she said. "Want to come?"

"Of course," Seyreon said, getting up as well.

The room where Yuhina thought the book might be was much smaller than the weapons room and contained much less stuff. It was also better organized.

"What kind of stuff is this?" Seyreon asked.

"Mission items," Yuhina answered, walking about the room. "Things we can't use, but which others might be able to. Ah, here's the books."

Seyreon joined her at the shelf.

"Ah! We do have one!" Yuhina exclaimed, pleased. She pulled a book out of the shelf entitled _Catalog of Weaponry _and headed back to the common area of the base. "I believe we got this from the book's author; he needed a fencer to tell him what different kinds of rapiers did, so Azina went. When she came back, she had a copy of the book. Exactly the sort of thing Azina'd bring."

"She likes books?"

"Oh, Azina _loves_ books. Azila likes them too, but she'd rather learn things by observing. She's the sort of person who'd have written this book; Azina's the sort of person who'd read it."

Yuhina put the book on the table to deal with in the morning.

She yawned.

"I know it's not that late," she said, "but I'm very tired. I think I'll go to bed."

Seyreon, somewhat to his surprise, found that he was also tired. He had slept for an entire day and had not woken until nearly noon, yet here it was only eight hours later (more or less -he had yet to find a clock anywhere) and he already wanted more sleep!

_I _have_ been working pretty hard,_ he mused. _And I _was_ injured, that might have something to do with it. Maybe being unconscious didn't really count as sleep._

"I think I'll go to bed too," he said aloud. "Um... where do I sleep?"

"Oh," Yuhina said, "right." She had been so tired, she had almost forgotten about that! "There's a few spare bedrooms -that's where you were when you woke up, in one of them." She gestured to a door which, now that Seyreon thought about it, was the door to the same room he had been in earlier. "You can sleep there."

"Thank you, Yuhina," Seyreon said quietly. "For everything."

Yuhina waved a hand over her shoulder, already on her way to bed.

"It's no problem," she said, opening a door. "Just what anyone would do."

As she closed the door to what must be her bedroom, Seyreon shook his head.

"No," he whispered. "It's not."

Then Seyreon went into his own bedroom and closed the door behind him.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Delivery to Cadoan

"Sso where'ss thiss persson we're ssuppossed to be giving thesse to?" asked Kei.

"Not far," said Azila, looking up and down the street. "In fact, I think- ah, indeed, there it is!"

The others turned to look where Azila was pointing.

"Come on, let's make this delivery and get out of here, kupo," Varei muttered, glancing around uneasily.

"Not so fast," said a voice from the rooftops.

"I guesss ssomeone really _did_ want to ssteal it," Kei said, looking up.

"And who are you?" Azina asked.

"We're the Eluut Lookouts," the voice said, its owner coming into view. He was a human, and a thief by his clothing. "And we'd like to know what you've got there."

"Jusst ssome alchemy ssuppliess," said Kei.

"And who might they be for?"

"Zezamer Stormwatcher," said Azila.

"Ah. That's what I thought. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you not to deliver them."

"Why should we not?" Azina asked reasonably.

"We've been asked to stop this delivery by whatever means necessary."

"Who asked? And why should we care, kupo?" Varei demanded.

"Well, it's clear this isn't going to go easily," the young man said.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Azina asked.

The thief waved a hand and a few others appeared on the rooftops around them -a viera archer, a moogle thief, and two more humans, a black mage and a soldier.

"I declare an engagement!" the human thief announced.

"Joy," Varei muttered sarcastically as she pulled out her rod. "It's a fight. No doubt it'll be kupo fun!"

Kei grinned as he readied his spear.

"That'ss the sspirit," he said approvingly, the sarcasm completely failing to meet his notice at all. "Let'ss go!"

Lamoru took out his mace and waited.

The judge appeared on an unoccupied rooftop.

"Engagement between Clan Verity and the Eluut Lookouts," he said. "Either clan will win when all the members of the other have been knocked out." He blew his whistle. "Begin!"

"What are the laws for today?" Azina asked, drawing her rapier.

"Stealing and rapiers!" Azila answered, putting an arrow to her bow.

"Take the mage out first!" Azina ordered Kei. "Then go after the archer!"

"Got it!" Kei said, running forwards a little and then leaping. His armor shone in the sun as he reached the height of his jump and began to fall again.

The mage had just enough time to realize what was happening. He had been facing the bangaa's original location -but Kei had been near the corner of the building and had run around to attack him from the side. Kei might not be much for thinking, but he was good at fighting, though it helped to have Azi's directions.

The mage survived Kei's initial attack -but only just.

Azila drew her arrow back, aimed carefully towards the human thief, and fired.

"Ow!" the thief cried, putting a hand to his arm.

Azila smiled. Perfect shot.

Azina held her rapier point upright, both hands folded around the hilt, and focused.

"Fire Whip," she whispered.

A ball of red light sprung from her towards the moogle. When it reached its target, it spread into rings that lashed the moogle with fire.

Varei raised her arms, rod in her right hand, nothing in her left.

"Thunder!" she cried.

The black mage crumpled under the impact of a mild lightning strike.

Stars danced for a moment around Varei, as she was awarded a judge point.

Then the soldier, who so far they had ignored, hopped off the roof by way of a handy crate.

He slashed Varei.

"Rei!" cried Kei.

"I'll be... kupo..." Varei mumbled, staggering from the blow.

"Lamoru, help Varei!" called Azila.

Lamoru raised his arms, mace in his right hand, held like a staff. Unlike most magic-casters, he made no sound.

Light flowered over Varei. Soon she seemed fine again.

"Thanks, Lamoru," she murmured.

Lamoru just nodded.

Then the archer shot him.

Lamoru winced, but still he said not a word.

Varei raced towards the archer, but soon realized it would take quite a while to get there. The twins could get there sooner.

So she settled for the nearest target: the soldier.

"Fira!" she cried, blasting him with fire.

It took the soldier out instantly.

Another judge point for Varei.

The archer aimed carefully, just as Azila had.

"Kei, look out-" Varei began.

She was too late. The arrow struck Kei in the leg, not seriously injuring him but making it hard for him to walk.

The moogle thief, however, was stupid enough to rush down and attempt to stab Varei with his little knife. Fortunately, he missed.

Also fortunately, he had not been paying enough attention to where he was. Kei promptly stabbed him, and the moogle fell. Although he had not been next to the dragoon, he _had_ been in spear range.

Judge point for Kei.

Azila's bow twanged. The enemy archer winced.

The human thief slashed Lamoru.

Lamoru groaned.

"_Moru!_" Kei sounded nearly panicked.

Lamoru shook his head slightly, as though to clear it, and started a spell.

"The disable wore off," Azila muttered.

"Heavy Dust!" cried Azina. Stones struck the viera Lookout and she collapsed with a cry.

The stars danced around Azina.

Lamoru's second Cura spell healed him.

"THUNDARA!" yelled Varei. Bolts of lightning, more powerful than that which had defeated the mage, struck the human thief.

However, the thief was not weakened by a dragoon jumping attack, and he had more resistance to magic than the soldier. He lived.

The thief had turned his back on Kei, figuring that the immobile dragoon was less of a threat than the others.

But he had miscalculated.

Kei breathed in... and out.

And fire hit the thief.

It was just enough. The thief groaned and fell.

And the last judge point went to Kei.

"Victory in this engagement goes to Clan Verity," the judge intoned. "All wounds incurred in the battle will now be healed."

"We won!" Kei yelled, grinning happily.

"Wow, I never would have guessed," muttered Varei.

"Aw, ssure you would," Kei said encouragingly. "You're pretty clever."

"...Thanks, I think, kupo," Varei said, caught somewhat off guard.

"After all, you were right about ssomeone wanting to ssteal the thingss," Kei went on, grabbing the collar of the human thief as he tried to scatter with the rest of his friends and went straight past the bangaa.

"Why _did_ you want those?" Azina demanded of the thief. "You don't have anyone in your clan who could do anything with them."

"They could sell them," Varei offered.

"There are a variety of much easier ways to earn money," said Azila.

"Ah," Varei said, nodding. "That doesn't make sense then. Thieves are lazy. That's why they're thieves."

The thief sighed.

"Look, if I tell you, will you let me go?" he asked.

"Yes," said Azila.

"If you don't bother us on the way out," Varei added.

"Won't be any point then," said the thief. "This is what I know: there was a mission posted in the pub saying that a shipment was due to arrive today for Zezamer Stormwatcher. The request was to stop the shipment from arriving. That's all I know."

"Who posted the mission?" asked Azina.

"It was anonymous."

"Why'd you take the mission?" asked Azina, puzzled.

"I thought maybe it was some kind of dangerous stuff, something the palace didn't want Stormwatcher having. They're weird about that kind of stuff, you know."

Azila watched the whole exchange with interest. Kei stood around looking bored, Varei's eyes darted everywhere looking for another attack, and Lamoru also listened to Azina questioning the thief.

Azina sighed.

"We'd better deliver this before something else happens," she said.

"Can't be soon enough for me, kupo," Varei agreed.

Fortunately, there were no more mishaps.

"Tomorrow we'll be home," Kei said, staring at the campfire. They were all sitting around it, resting for the evening in the Eluut Sands.

"And back with Yuna," said Varei. They all missed Yuhina.

"I wonder what she's been doing?" Azina mused.

"Oh," Azila said pleasantly, "no doubt she's been keeping busy..."


	6. Chapter Six

((Greetings, everyone! I just wanted to thank BigDragun987 for his review. It was very encouraging. Thank you!

On with the story!))

Chapter Six: An Ordinary Day

"So," Yuhina said, leaning on the counter, "what's up?"

Seyreon stood nearby, listening but also looking around the pub.

"Not much," replied the pubkeeper, "but I did hear something. You remember that old nu mou who told you about the White Priestess? It turns out he's a priest of the Order of the Sacred Secret."

"The what?" Yuhina asked, puzzled.

"I'm afraid that's all I know. As you might expect from their name, the Order is very mysterious."

Yuhina sighed.

"Well, thank you," she said.

"Come back anytime," Domar called as they headed back to the base.

"Thanks again!" Yuhina called over her shoulder.

"So every morning you talk to him?" Seyreon asked.

"Yep," Yuhina said cheerfully. "Every morning. He's the pubkeeper, so he hears lots of interesting rumors. And he's happy to pass them on. Plus, it's nice to have someone to talk to when the others are out on a mission."

For a moment, it seemed that a sad expression crossed her face, but it was gone so quickly that Seyreon wondered if he had imagined it.

"Yeah," he said, "I guess it would be." He didn't know much about the world, seeing as his memory spanned approximately one day, but he already knew something about being lonely.

"So!" Yuhina clapped her hands. "We've two more days to finish this up, and the second one is really only part of a day. We'd better get to work!"

They did the armor next, chatting as they sorted.

"So what do you usually do, Yuhina?" Seyreon asked. He was curious about this girl, this bookkeeper who had helped him so much. "I mean, when the rest of the clan is around."

"Oh, all sorts of fun things," Yuhina said happily. "There's not much work to do, since mostly what I do is record the missions we've been on, and if there's no missions, well, there's nothing to record! So we just relax, enjoy each other's company, and generally have fun. We play games, have conversations, all that sort of stuff. And then when they start getting restless I find them another mission and off they go to adventure!" She said this in a cheery tone, yet Seyreon thought that her face looked sad for a moment.

It quickly passed.

"And then when they're not around," she went on, "I keep myself busy doing things like this, so that the time goes quickly until they come back! Plus, if they're doing something useful, it's nice to think that I am as well. You know, so I'm not useless."

"I don't think you could be useless if you tried," said Seyreon.

Yuhina giggled.

"Aw, that's sweet," she said.

They kept up the friendly conversation until the work was done.

"Well, that was much easier than the weapons," said Seyreon.

"Yeah, fewer kinds of stuff," said Yuhina. "Just armor, robes, and clothes, really. Then get it all looking reasonably neat and we're done!"

"So what's next?" asked Seyreon.

"Lunch," Yuhina declared. "I'm hungry!"

Seyreon chuckled.

After lunch, they sorted the hats and shields (which for some reason had been put in the same room, but was quite soon done because there were hardly any of either), followed by the room full of random other items (shoes, gloves, amulets... Seyreon wondered just how they had decided what went where).

And then, they returned to the weapons.

Oh, they had fun looking through the book and figuring out just what Clan Verity had. They were able to separate the swords into greatswords, knightswords, and various other categories neither had known existed.

"Yuhina, why are you putting those weapons to the side?"

"They're special," said Yuhina, patting the small pile of bluish-white weapons. "These are made of _mythril_."

That answer made Seyreon only slightly less confused.

"Hey Seyreon, why are you staring at that staff?"

"Did _you_ know it was possible to revive people from the dead?"

"Oh yeah, people do that every now and then. It can be kind of annoying when your opponents do it and really useful when you do, Azila's told me about it. It doesn't work as well if you're not in an engagement, though. I'm not sure why. And judges do it after every engagement."

Seyreon blinked. Then he shook his head.

_Note to self: Anything can happen. So don't be so surprised when it does._

"Um... explain this 'engagement' stuff to me? You've said some things about it, but I'm not sure I really understand..."

It took them the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening to finish organizing all the weapons. By that time, Yuhina had told Seyreon everything she knew about engagements (which was not very much), and a number of other things besides.

Finally, Yuhina clapped her hands.

"Whew! All done," she said happily. "Won't they be surprised!"

Seyreon was surprised himself. The weapons had been placed neatly, sorted by type and within the types by some system he did not understand, but which Yuhina assured him she did. Most were hung on the wall (those nails had been quite a bit of work to hammer in), though some had been put on shelves (the room had already had the shelves, and Seyreon wondered why they had not already been in use).

The mythril weapons had been left on a table in the center (the table had already been in the room, buried in a pile of weaponry).

The two of them went back to the common area, where they promptly collapsed onto the couch.

"We ought to go to bed," Yuhina mumbled.

"As soon as I can actually stand up..." Seyreon replied.

Only a few minutes later, they were both asleep, Yuhina's head on Seyreon's shoulder.


End file.
